I remember about 15 years ago moving house in the middle of a very hot August and sprinting back and forth with our gear from the van to get the job done. This time round I watched everyone else doing the hard work from my window. Boiling a kettle was hard enough! Just watching them wore me out!

I just found myself absolutely incapable of lifting my (BA compatible hand luggage) suitcase onto the luggage rack over my head (only place for it). A kind young lady (! Calling her such makes me sound even older!) did it for me. It was above my head, but even so...

I've had some grey for a long time but it's the first time I've had a clump you could mistake for cotton wool

Herbi - I look older than you (after all, I am !) but I'm also taller and more broad shouldered. I find air crew automatically take hand baggage off me and stow it, but I get smaller people looking at me hopefully.... on planes (I appreciate you are on a train) I check in my main bag even if it is the "cabin bag" on wheels and take an increasingly small hand bag on board, let baggage handling do the heavy lifting!

When I was returning from our villa 8n Spain a few years ago I had an empty cabin case..........rather than not bring anything home I bought a 10 kilo net of delicious oranges and put them inside the cabin case. All was well wheeling my case through the airport until I boarded the plane and tried to put the bag in the overhead rack. I was mortified when I couldn’t lift it.

I did eventually manage it in a two step process. But it did make me realise I’m not as young as I once was.

For the past 10 months I've been going to something called Bodystreet. It's a form of exercise that uses Electro Muscle Stimulation - you where a suit that has electric connections at strategic points on the body and as you get into various positions it passes a current through the muscle. I have lost a small amount of weight - but that isn't why I signed up as I don't have any weight to lose - but more importantly I have increased my body strength beyond all my expectations. You don't have to be fit to do it and it doesn't matter how old you are. I have dropped a dress size because my muscles are now so toned. My friends are all amazed at the transformation in my body shape. The reason I'm posting this is because of the strengthening of my body that has happened - I can lift stuff that I would never have been able to - like a case above my head into an overhead locker. Although very new in this country it is huge in Germany apparently.

Herbidacious wrote:I’ll look into that! I did have a gym sub once. It helped tone things but I didn’t enjoy it one bit.Edit: well maybe a little bit. I liked the arm exercises... and overdid and injured myself. Doh.

The best bit is that you only do it for 20 minutes a week I saw real changes after just 12 weeks - I am now wearing sleeveless tops and dresses for the first time in years as I have toned arms - but more importantly to me is that I have upper body strength!

Bodystreet sounds interesting. I have never had particularly good upper arm strength (dreaded trying to climb ropes in gym at school ).Since having my checked luggage lost twice I take a larger carry on bag with a change of clothes and a few basics now. It doesn't have to be huge but I have waited up to 3 days for my case to be delivered and have known people who have had to wait longer. Thankfully the bags are usually traceable.

I could beat my husband arm wrestling when we first met. It was to do with having to carrying heavy shopping bags home and my cycling technique (pulling on the handle bars enabling me to somehow move further faster. There must be a word for that.)

I had quite strong upper arms (pitching hay bales etc) until my thyroid began to stop working ... then my upper arm and thigh muscles just became very weak ... climbing stairs was almost impossible ... medication has helped a bit,

I have week hands and wrists, andvhad fairly slender arnms but the shoulders of a handy prop forward. I haven't triedrecently, but last time I found one of those little gyms in a park, I coukd still pulk myself up to chin a bar

I felt old this morning when someone walked onto the stage of Jeremy Kyle and my thoughts were along the line of 'Crikey, she's let herself go in her old age' for it to be revealed she was seven years younger than me.....

In the build up to the World Cup next month there has been football talk on TV this morning focussing on the late great Bobby Robson. A hero of mine going back to my youth came on - Terry Butcher - talking about getting match results on Teletext! He looked so old. I thought crikey, if he looks that old, how old must I look?

Today we went out in my Puma, I am finding it increasingly awkward to get in and out of...... During the day, I also had to get in and out of a new model of a very large Land Rover, I needed a step ladder to get in ! Getting out was like going on a slide, thankfully the seats were leather and I slid out. I am sure there was a point I was in midair !

Zosh, some of those SUV type cars are like trying to get into a lorry - especially if like me, you have very short legs! I am always surprised when people say they are more comfortable for the elderly. My mum and MIL certainly couldn't have managed to get in.

aero280 wrote:I’m quite ancient! I was at uni when England won the World Cup in 1966.

I wasn't that old, but I do remember it ... I was on holiday with Bro and parents on the Isle of Wight

I'm not by any means 'quite old' .... but I've just ordered myself a 'sholley' ............... I came back from the city centre market having visited the butcher and got several bargains from him, plus some new potatoes, fresh garlic and fennel bulbs and a loaf of sour dough ... and carrying it back to the bus stop I did 'something' to my back ....... nothing major but enough to make me wary of carrying weights like that on a regular basis ... and I like shopping in the market especially now OH isn't at the farm shop. So I've ordered a very trendy Japanese-styled foldable insulated sholley with an acid green handle and wheels ... I'm quite excited ...

I've had one for years Suffs. I don't see anything shameful about walking instead of taking the car! Together with a rucksack you can almost do a monthly shop!

I felt incredibly old this morning when a football enthusiast was interviewed on TV. He looked quite old to me, certainly past the age where anyone might look at him twice unless enthralled by his conversation ... but he said he had not been born in 1966 . I often have to remind myself that my young work colleagues must view me like a fossil - in the way I would have at their age!

I'd love to know where you got your sholley suffs. The trolley I have on loan from my mum is very old and tends to topple over easily unless it is half full, plus it's not insulated so I am limited to what I can carry.

I used to call this one an old lady trolley. I wouldn't be without it now!

suffolk wrote:I've ordered it from Amazon ... there's loads on there ... the one I'm getting is half price at the moment ... it's made by Sabichi.

So it's not a Sholley which is a brand? They seem to start at about £130

I have an aging two wheeler which will be replaced at some point - I prefer to use a separate insulated bag though, even if I bung it into the trolleyThe thing is my trolley has a built in hook, so you can hang it on the supermarket cart and they no longer seem to be made them, either built in or separate

StokeySue wrote: ...The thing is my trolley has a built in hook, so you can hang it on the supermarket cart and they no longer seem to be made them, either built in or separate

The Amazon Q & A says

"Question: Can this trolley hang on the front of a supermarket trolley in the same was as shown in one of the photos for the Gimi flexi trolley? tia.Answer: Yes it can. I've been to M&S and Asda with my trolley and it hangs on the bit where you would put your bags. By Amazon Customer on 25 May 2017"

The 1966 World Cup final was the first football match I ever watched all the way through

Ditto, I must have seen some of the earlier rounds, but they don't stick in my mind so much.

I have however, seen rather a lot since

I was just the right age to be enthusiastic, expected England to win and they did. Reality dawned as we lost to Scotland the following year, and has stayed with me ever since. However, hope springs eternal, but it's the hope that destroys you...

suffolk wrote:The Amazon Q & A says"Question: Can this trolley hang on the front of a supermarket trolley in the same was as shown in one of the photos for the Gimi flexi trolley? tia.Answer: Yes it can. I've been to M&S and Asda with my trolley and it hangs on the bit where you would put your bags. By Amazon Customer on 25 May 2017"So hopefully the one I've ordered will have a hook.

The Gimi has a hook quite similar to mine, in fact it seems to hang a bit better having a neater and more collapsible handler- but the Q&A doesn't quite make sense as on our shipping carts (I'm using the US term for clarity) have the bag hook under the handle, at the opposite end. However, the pictures show a different story